"Georgians would have enrolled in insurance plans through private insurance brokers rather than the federal healthcare.gov health insurance marketplace. The plan ... initially gained federal approval under then-President Donald Trump in November 2020. [A]fter the Biden administration took office, [HHS] asked Georgia to submit a revised plan for the waiver ... Georgia challenged the HHS findings and did not submit the requested changes to the plan.... Now, HHS has suspended Georgia's waiver plan."

"On both June 24 and Aug. 2, 2022, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment's Division of Labor Standards and Statistics issued yet additional revised and updated guidance as to the HFWA.... By Jan. 1, 2023, all covered employers are required to register with the FAMLI Division. Virtually all employers with employees in Colorado are covered."

"The 9th Circuit stated that the [Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA)] contains an express preemption provision disallowing railroad employees from having any right to sickness benefits under a sickness law of any State. Given that the Act provides sickness benefits, the Act falls within the express terms of the RUIA preemption." [National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Su, No. 21-15816 (9th Cir. Jul. 26, 2022)]

"San Francisco has posted the 2023 Health Care Expenditure (HCE) rates under the Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO) rules. The HCSO applies to all employers that must obtain a San Francisco business registration certificate and have at least 20 employees in any location if at least one works in the city and county of San Francisco....  HCSO expenditure requirements do not currently apply to employees telecommuting outside of San Francisco."

"Maryland law now requires employers with 15 or more employees to permit the use of existing accrued paid leave for bereavement purposes.... Few other states require employers to provide bereavement leave."

"Under the original amendment in the Massachusetts state budget, employers and employees could supplement the PFMLA benefit payments with 'any accrued sick or vacation pay or other paid leave provided under an employer policy.' ... Vetoing the provision, the governor stated concerns about the cost and implementation of the amendment and asked for a study on the costs.... [T]he Massachusetts legislature voted to override the governor's amendment veto and returned it to the governor for signature.... At this time, the governor has not acted."

"[F}or now, ... the current Paid Medical Act remain[s] in effect; however, effective February 19, 2023, the Earned Sick Time Act will replace the Paid Medical Leave Act ... unless the Court's decision is overturned altogether on appeal. It is also possible that parts of the ruling will become moot if new legislation is passed."

"[E]mployees will now have the option to use their accrued paid leave (i.e., sick, vacation, personal leave) to supplement their PFML benefits while on a PFML-qualifying leave. This is a significant change from when the PFML was first enacted, which required employees to choose either PFML partial wage replacement benefits or paid time off while on leave."

"[On July 29,] the Michigan Court of Claims issued a stay of its July 19, 2022, decision ... that had reinstated ballot initiatives that would have drastically changed the state's paid medical leave and minimum wage laws. The stay is in place until February 19, 2023. This means that the adopted and amended versions of these laws will remain in place for now."

"A provision in the enacted state budget for fiscal year 2023 amends the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA) to provide employers and employees more flexibility to use other accrued benefits to supplement paid benefits received from the state."

"Employers should remain aware that this paid COVID vaccination leave cannot be charged against any other leave to which the employee is entitled, including paid sick leave or leave provided under a collective bargaining agreement."

"Although the State of Michigan immediately filed an appeal of the court's order and a motion to stay its directive to reinstate the ballot initiatives as originally enacted, the current status of Michigan's minimum wage and paid sick leave laws remains in flux. Should the court's order ultimately be upheld, here is how the laws would change."

"The Connecticut [DOL] released a sample Notice ... Employers must provide the notice to all existing employees on an annual basis -- starting July 1 -- and to all new hires at the time of hire.... [T]he CT PFMLA appears to require individual distribution of the notice."

"Colorado employers must continue to provide paid COVID leave to employees who have public health emergency related leave available. Recently, the federal government extended the public health emergency declaration related to COVID-19 for an additional 90 days."

"Unless the Michigan Court of Appeals or Supreme Court issues a stay pending an appeal, ... [all] Michigan employees are now eligible for paid sick leave, including previously exempted part-time, executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees. Employers must provide 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked (instead of the prior 1:35 ratio). Employers with less than 10 workers may cap paid time off at 40 hours annually; all others must provide employees up to 72 hours of paid time off annually."

"Employers may want to examine their current leave policies for Michigan employees and assess any necessary modifications needed to comply with the expanded paid sick leave (and other) provisions of the original legislation. Here is a recap of the most notable provisions in the original law[.]"

"On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, the Michigan Court of Claims determined that the Michigan Legislature violated the Michigan Constitution when it adopted and then amended two ballot petition initiatives in 2018.... The laws as amended by the Legislature were quite different from the original ballot initiatives in a number of ways."

"Bloomington became the fourth Minnesota city to pass a citywide Earned Sick and Safe Leave ordinance, requiring all private employers with one or more employees to provide eligible employees with safe and sick leave. The ordinance becomes effective on July 1, 2023."

"Effective January 1, 2022, financial institutions operating in Minnesota are required to begin withholding Minnesota Personal Income Tax on annuity and pension payments made to any of its customers that reside in Minnesota.... If a financial institution has nexus in Minnesota but has not withheld Tax on pension and annuity distributions after January 1, 2022, it could be liable for up to the full amount of the Tax that should have been withheld, together with a penalty for failure to timely withhold and remit Tax."

"Gov. David Ige (D) signed legislation creating the program into law on July 12. It went into effect immediately. The program has two unique features.... In order to participate in the program, employees will have to opt in. And unlike any other state so far, one of the members of the board that will administer the program will be a retiree living in Hawaii, to represent retirees."

"San Francisco has significantly expanded its Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance to guarantee flexible or predictable work arrangements for employees with qualifying caregiver responsibilities when the employee provides notice of their preferred arrangement, unless the employer can demonstrate an undue hardship to the employer."

"[A] new bill in New Jersey would require all school districts with more than 1,000 students to have at least three 403(b) 'financial institutions or pension management organizations.' ... It's an understatement to call this an awful bill.... Promoters have said the bill will ensure quality pricing but nowhere in the proposed legislation does it specify this must happen."

"Insurance companies that sell policies on and off Connecticut's [ACA] exchange are seeking an average increase of 20.4% on individual health plans next year ... On small group plans, the carriers are asking for an average increase of 14.8%.... Carriers in 2021 asked for an average hike of 8.6% on individual plans and 12.9% on small group plans."

"State and local leave laws create a host of compliance issues for employers. Employers may want to review their current policies taking into account their industry and the state, or sometimes even the specific ZIP code in which they operate. They may also want to consider the evolving definitions of what is a qualified event, particularly in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis."

"[E]mployers can count the amount of unused sick leave that is carried over to a subsequent year toward the employee's entitlement to accrue sick leave hours in the subsequent year.... INFO #6B also clarifies the amount of Public Health Emergency Leave (PHEL) that employees are entitled to in Colorado. [A]ny accrued but unused sick leave in an employee's sick leave bank when a PHEL request is made may be counted toward the 80-hour entitlement as a 'credit.' "